Letters to the Editor 5/26

Nightmare scenario

I read in horror about Bill Morem’s poor dog Buster being attacked by those three dogs (“Faith in mankind wounded, restored,” May 20). This is my worst nightmare each and every time I walk my dog.

My heart goes out to Buster and the Morem family and I pray everyday for a swift and painless recovery for poor Buster. I find it commendable that the Morem family was able to find it in their hearts to forgive Todd and his dogs. I’m not so sure I could do the same and I hope I never have to find out.

I hope people take this as the wake up call it was meant to be and use more caution when dealing with their dogs in a public place. Even those who believe their dogs to be “friendly” and let them approach other dogs without the consent of the other dog owner are potentially creating a hazardous situation. My dog is typically friendly, but I’m not sure she will always approve of the other dog, so I am cautious.

Cooling ‘wisdom’

Many thanks to Joe Tarica and his commentary in which he questions the “wisdom” of the state Water Resourc-es Control Board in requiring Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to scrap the ocean cooling water system at Diablo Canyon for some multibillion-dollar alternative yet to be devised (“Water board should chill out about Diablo’s cooling,” May 22).

As Tarica learned on his trip to the plant, its impacts are small and it is far from the environmental wasteland around the plant that nuclear opponents would have you believe.

The state water board, the Coastal Commission and other agencies we’ve created don’t care about balancing the impacts versus driving up our electric bills. They are drunk with their own power and wrongly believe that we can create huge amounts of electricity with zero impact on the environment. Unfortunately, wind and solar power only work when the sun shines or the winds blows. Storage of electricity on a large scale is not possible.

I’m sure that once the alternative technology for cooling is announced, the opponents and government agencies will try to shoot it down, because for them, it’s not really about making nuclear safer or greener, it’s about shutting it down by driving up the costs.

Jeff Lewis

Los Osos

Best of luck

So long, Tony Cipolla. We will miss your great style and true professionalism. From a fellow Chicago Cubs fan, we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Merl Deena

San Luis Obispo

Let’s let BP pay

Larry Trine will be happy to know we’ve been inspired by his suggestion — originally proposed by Rush Limbaugh — that the Sierra Club should pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster (“Who should pay?,” May 22).

But because Limbaugh’s logic is defective (based on the notion that we drove “safe” near shore oil drilling out to sea where it became “dangerous,” when in fact all offshore drilling is unsafe), we’re actually going to do better than that: We’ll let BP pay for its own negligence while we move forward with a plan to get off our oil addiction over the next 20 years and thereby avoid future disasters and the cost of those cleanups.

To help us do so, we’ve put Limbaugh to work as our top fundraiser. And he’s doing great! If you want to help finance the end of offshore drilling and the path to a clean energy future in Limbaugh’s name, we will send him a thank you note for your gift, along with your personal message to him. Go to http://action.sierraclub.org/rushfundraiser.

Andrew Christie

Director, Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club

Focus on values

A huge thanks to the children of The Laureate and Coastal Christian Elementary schools for participating in a fundraiser for a fellow student fighting cancer. Eighty students each created a piece of art and held a very special art show called “Art from the Heart” to ask for donations for their work to assist 10-year-old Tyler Borges with his medical expenses.

I want to thank Tamara Burnes, Kay Kertis, Nancy Robertus, Julie Cucchiara and my entire team at RE/MAX Magic for organizing such a wonderful event. The children raised more than $1,900 so far and we still have people dropping by the office donating for the art work that is still available.

We received one letter from a 9-year-old boy named Logan who wanted to donate two weeks of his allowance to help Tyler and his family — very cool!

We are truly blessed to live in a community that still has a strong focus on family values and a desire to help those in need. Tyler and his family are deeply moved and appreciative of everyone’s generosity.